In the Realm of Possibility
by fewthistle
Summary: Anna and Elsa find that a whole new realm of possibilities has opened up for them. A modern AU. Non-incest. Set in the same universe as "Pilgrimage" and "Si vis amari, ama", in which Anna and Elsa are attorneys in Manhattan. Just a little "what if" kind of tale, hopefully on the fanciful and romantic side. This story has bits inspired by the amazing French film, "Amelie."


In the Realm of Possibility  
By Fewthistle

The noises coming from the other room finally woke her. The rustling sound, at first, merely registered in her consciousness as part of her dream, a dream in which she sat on a park bench in Paris and slowly turned the pages of a book of André Breton's poems. Soon however, the rustling sound was joined by a more insistent noise, the muffled thumping of boots against the cobblestone streets of Paris, as German troops marched unmolested through the city.

The sound of a mortar blast roused her from her slumber, so that she sat straight up in bed, gasping for breath, her hair a tousled mass of silken platinum strands around her flushed face. Returning to a groggy reality, she reached to her right, only to find a cool expanse of silken cotton. No warm body, no Anna slumbering peacefully beside her.

Elsa realized that the sounds from her dream were real, not a slumber induced fantasy and they were coming from the kitchen. Throwing back the covers, and quickly donning her red silk robe, she padded quietly towards the other room, the apartment oppressively quiet now as she approached the door. Reaching out cautiously, she threw the kitchen door open, the bright overhead light streaming out into the darkened hall, momentarily blinding her.

Anna sat at the kitchen table, her robe hanging open, green eyes wide with surprise as the door flew open. In one hand she held a long screwdriver, in the other a rubber mallet. On the table in front of her was a rusted metal box, about two feet long and a foot wide. The top was open. Clearly the last loud thud had been the sound of success, as the lock gave way under the mallet and the screwdriver. As the door swung closed, so did the lid of the box, as she hastily closed it.

"What in hell are you doing?" Elsa demanded brusquely, her voice even huskier than usual with lingering traces of sleep.

"Um. Well, I was trying to get this open. I closed the door so that I wouldn't wake you," Anna explained somewhat unnecessarily, as it was rather obvious what she had been up to.

"Anna. What the hell are you doing up at 2 am? Where in the hell did that box come from and what possessed you to try and open it at this hour of the morning?" Elsa again demanded, the tone as clipped and precise as it was when she stood in the well and cross-examined a witness.

"Sorry," Anna muttered, setting the mallet and screwdriver down and pushing back her chair from the table. She began to explain, her voice unnaturally loud in the confines of the small room, seeming to echo off the pale yellow walls.

"I woke up an hour ago and I couldn't sleep. You were sound asleep. I went in the bathroom, thinking that a hot bath might help. I was putting some of that green tea bath stuff in the tub when I dropped the top. It rolled back behind the tub.

"It's a brand new bottle, so I got down on my hands and knees to get it. I ended up having to lay on my stomach to reach it. I stuck my hand under there to get it and grabbed the edge of a loose tile instead. The tile came off in my hand. So I scooted in a little further, and I could see that a bunch of the tiles were loose," Anna explained slowly, as if telling a story to a child.

"Anna, will this story be over before the sun comes up or should I make some coffee?" Elsa asked a trifle acerbically. After all she had been woken up from a sound slumber at two in the morning. This side of bitchy was probably the best that she could do.

"Just sit down and listen," Anna replied, her voice uncharacteristically short.

Without reply, Elsa pulled out the opposite chair and sat down somewhat unceremoniously.

"Go ahead," she told her partner quietly, the edge gone from her voice at the strangeness of Anna's attitude.

"Well, I decided to get a flashlight so that I could see just how much we're going to need to get fixed behind the tub. When I shone the light back there, I could see this gleam of metal behind the empty space left by the tile I pulled out. So, I started to pull the rest of them.

"At first I thought that it was just pipes or something, but then I could see the outlines of the box. I finally got it out and brought it in here to see what it was. The lock was rusted shut, so I got out the tools to see if I could pry it open," Anna finished, her gaze straying occasionally down to the gray and brownish lid of the box in front of her.

"So, what's in it?" Elsa inquired curiously, scraping her chair across the tile floor as she slid closer to the table and the box.

Anna seemed to draw in a deep breath and hold it for a moment, before reaching out a slender hand and grasping the edge of the lid. As she exhaled, she opened it slowly but surely, finally dropping it back to lay at a thirty degree angle, gravity causing it to bounce once or twice as she let it go.

Inside, stacked neatly, were bundles of money. A great many bundles of a great deal of money. All hundred dollar bills from the look of it. Stacks of them. Lying across the top, like a snake coiled to protect an ancient temple, lay a revolver, its black metal gleaming scales in the bright overhead light.

"Jesus," Elsa exclaimed softly, her crystal blue eyes riveted on the contents of the metal box.

"Yeah," Anna affirmed, her own eyes now glued to the stacks of green and off-white, and to the dull black of the gun.

Reaching out a hand, Elsa wrapped her fingers gently around the butt of the revolver, lifting it from its perch on top of the money as if expecting it to explode like a live grenade.

"Elsa," Anna whispered, her voice apprehensive. "Maybe we should just leave it there. The police will know how to handle it."

"Police?" Elsa asked distractedly, turning the pistol over in her hands and releasing the barrel to examine the four remaining bullets still housed in the cylinder.

"Yes, police. Don't you think that we should simply call them and turn it over? I mean, whoever put it there and wherever the money came from, clearly it's ill-gotten gain," Anna responded, her voice less than even.

"You can't be sure of that. I mean, it is possible that this is someone's life savings, hidden away for safe keeping," Elsa hypothesized, gingerly setting the gun on the table and picking up one of the stacks of money.

"All in hundreds? Stuck in a box with a gun and hidden behind some tiles in the bathroom?" Anna answered, a skeptical tone in her voice matching the look in her eyes.

"Okay, so it isn't likely, but still, we can't assume that this is the result of some criminal activity," Elsa replied, her lips moving slightly as she counted the bills in her hand. "Besides, if you'll notice, the currency date on these is from 1953. See, no "In God We Trust". Even if this is the loot from some mob boss, he's quite probably a dead mob boss. If he wasn't and if anyone knew that this was here, it would have been gone long ago."

"Besides," Elsa added, her voice disturbingly normal, her hands moving swiftly to count the number of stacks, "Say we do turn it over to the police? Do you want to trust some poor property clerk with three kids and a mortgage to count it? We should know exactly what we're handing over, if we decide to hand it over."

"Elsa, we're officers of the court. Isn't it our duty to turn this over to the proper authorities?" Anna asked a little incredulously. She was somewhat shocked at her girlfriend's reaction. Elsa Arendelle was always "law and order", a stickler for the letter of the law. And here she was actually discussing the possibility of not turning in this hidden stash of money. Not to mention the gun.

"What about the gun?" Anna asked. "Surely you aren't suggesting that the gun just happens to innocently be in the box with all this money."

"Probably not innocently. But after all these years, it would be near to impossible to link it to any open crime." Elsa admitted, finishing her count of the stacks. "By my count there's about $460,000 here. Nearly half a million dollars."

The two of them sat in silence, the muted sounds of the city merely background noise to the thoughts ringing loudly in both their minds. At some point, their eyes met, emerald and sapphire, as unspoken words passed between them.

"Anna, what do you think? If you really want to turn it in, I'll make the call myself," Elsa told her gently. "But there are realms of possibility here that we should consider."

"So, we'd keep the money, get rid of the gun? We'd just quit our jobs, walk away from careers it has taken us both years to build?" Anna posed the question, her brows drawn together in a frown.

"Why not? Just think about it for a minute. No more dealing with miscreants and scum. No more watching justice be thwarted by slimy defense attorneys and a smarter breed of criminal. No more dealing with the D.A. and his minions from Hell. After all these years, I have a couple of contacts who would be willing to exchange the money for us," Elsa answered, reaching across to capture Anna's hand in her own.

"Exchange it into what?" Anna asked, her thumb idly tracing a circle on the back of Elsa's hand.

"Euros. There are places in Italy where you can live simply and cheaply. Imagine, a little sun-drenched villa, a garden full of wild-flowers, good wine, crusty bread, no worries, no drama, no traffic, no defendants, no judges. Just you and me, Anna," Elsa said caressingly, her voice low and husky and full of promises.

Anna sat silently for some time, not moving, her unfocused gaze fixed on the stacks of money beckoning from the metal box. Part of her mind, the good, Catholic school-girl part, baulked at Elsa's suggestion, reminding her that she was an Assistant District Attorney, that she had responsibilities and duties to uphold.

Another part, the one that reveled in the touch of Elsa's hand in hers, that longed to spend each day simply being, being happy, being in love with this amazing woman sitting across from her, attempted valiantly to drown out the ethical, reasonable murmur that said, call the police and turn it in.

Elsa could see the struggle waging inside her lover, reflected in the now clouded teal of her eyes. She wasn't sure why, although undoubtedly at some point in the future she would analyze the reasons, but as soon as she had heard Anna's story and seen the money she had known that this was the most important moment in her life. Whatever decision was reached here in this kitchen, on this one night, would affect both of their lives forever.

Elsa Arendelle hadn't gotten to where she was without being a very realistic, pragmatic woman. If they turned the money in, she had no doubts that it would simply disappear into the coffers of the City of New York, where it would do nothing to make the lives of any of the citizens of their fair city any better off than they were.

On the other hand, if they kept it, there was every chance that at least two people, two very deserving people in her opinion, could be very happy.

"Anna. Didn't you tell me once that you believe that everything happens for a reason? Think about it. This money has been hidden there for over sixty years. Of all the people to live in this apartment in six decades, we're the ones to find it. Doesn't that mean something? Doesn't that tell you that we might be meant to have it?" Elsa inveigled gently, leaning forward in emphasis.

Still, Anna didn't speak. Finally, after several minutes had passed, she stood abruptly. Extending her hand to a somewhat bewildered Elsa, she drew the blonde from her seat.

"Let's go back to bed," Anna said, drawing Elsa along with her toward the door.

"What about the money?" Elsa asked, allowing herself almost unconsciously to be led to the bedroom.

"Do you think that learning Italian will be hard?" Anna asked, her face lit by the most wonderful smile Elsa had ever seen.

FIN


End file.
